COMMUNIST ADVANCE IN NORTH CHINA

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25679, 16 December 1948, Page 7

COMMUNIST ADVANCE IN NORTH CHINA

Encirclement Of Peiping And Tientsin nationalists appeal to U.S. CONGRESS (N.Z.P.A.— Reuter—Copyright) (ReC^ 1 ' 3 °^ m ' ) n SHANGHAI, December 15. The Chinese Communists last night tightened their encirclement ot Peiping and are now pressing forward to the city walls. They are also completing the encirclement of Tientsin, the other remaining Nationalist stronghold in North ChinaThe Nationalists have abandoned three more imnortant Peiping outposts—Tungchow, 10 miles to the east" and Lianghsiang and Changsmtian, 20 and 15 miles to the south-’ V est. These losses are admitted in pro-Government reports. The Communists are also reported to be advancing on Chuanghangchen, a railway town between Tientsin and the port of Tangku, to isolate Tientsin. 1 The Chinese Control Yuan to-day appealed directlv to the United States House of Representatives for increased American military and economic aid to China. The appeal said that increased aid was needed immediately “to overcome the flaming peril from the Communist Party and to safeguard the democratic way ot life and the lasting peace of the world.”

The last link between Peiping, the frouier Imperial capital of China, and Tientsin was broken when fighting began near the railway station at Langlang, half way between the two cities. The Nationalists claim to have repulsed Communist attacks at Chingso, 10 miles north of Peiping, along the Peiping-Kalgan railway, where the railway station and military academy were destroyed by artillery fire. Confusion prevails in Peiping. All commercial airlines have stopped flights to the city because they lack assurances from the Chinese Air Force, and all trains from Tientsin to Peiping have been cancelled.

“May End Suddenly” William Parrott, the New Zealand Press Association-Reuter correspondent in Nanking, says: “Informed circles believe that the North China campaign may end suddenly with some kind of agreement between the Communists and the Nationalist leader, General Fu Tso-yi. The Communists would thus take over a vast amount of American supplied war material. “Observers point to the ease of the Communist advance on Peiping and to the Nationalists’ withdrawal from the Tongshan mining area.

“The surge of military and political events, flooding one upon the other in these critical Chinese days, has produced a vast amount of speculation and wishful thinking, but few have real clues as to how this drama will end. Only super-optimists or the very naive grant the Nationalists any chance of pulling through, but how the -cherished goal of peace will be reached, what manner of government will next be installed, and where it will stand in the parade of nations, are pressing questions still begging an answer.

“The most -urgent military question is probably North China rather than the operations near Nanking,” says Parrott. “In Central China most ob-

?e rver .s give the encircled Nationalchanc® .against the Communist war-of attrition north of Nan- ! s e V e L suggested that the m ?X ht have slowed down operations in this area while waiting to see what sort of a Cabinet Dr aun uo has nominated in Nanking.” U -S. Policy Statement Urged . New York Times,” in a leading article asking for a clear and authori‘■atlY l ? • statement of American policy on China, says: “When we thought we needed China, China could not do wrong Now there are reports of some impending change, as yet unannounced, in the United States attitude.”

Referring to the statement in Shanghai by the Economic Co-operation Administrator (Mr Paul Hoffman) that the United States might help a coalition Chinese Government if the present Nationalist Government failed, the “New York Times” says: “What happens to China is important to every American. Therefore they should not get their information from press conferences by Government appointees on the other side of the world. Certainly American taxpayers are entitled to ask, ‘When and where has there been a coalition Government with Communists that had any regard for essential freedoms?’ ”

The State Department in Washington said that Mr Hoffman was speaking only for himself when he said in Shanghai that the United States would continue helping a non-Communist Chinese Government if the present Nationalist Government fell. The State Department press officer, Mr Michael McDermott, said that a final decision on aid to China would be made by the White House when the need arose. He also denied rumours that American officials in Nanking were pressing Marshal Chiang Kai-shek to form a coalition Government with the Communists.